


mellow roll

by taetaetiger (sexyvanillatiger)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Consensual Infidelity, F/M, Genderbending, M/M, Multi, POV Third Person Limited, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-08
Updated: 2015-11-08
Packaged: 2018-04-30 16:43:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5171696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sexyvanillatiger/pseuds/taetaetiger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zitao wonders if this is just karma. Divine intervention. Something justifiable, meaningful, righting the wrong of Yiqing being swept out of Lu Han's arms and into Kris' bed. Not that Kris and Yiqing don't have a good relationship <i>now</i>. Or at least, he thought they did, until Yiqing went and cheated on him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	mellow roll

Zitao's eyes widen and he claps a hand over his mouth to keep silent. Yiqing looks up from where she's focusing on silently closing Lu Han's door, and she shoots the stunned boy a sly smile. She holds one slender finger in front of her lips, gesturing for silence, and without waiting for him to come to his senses, she silently darts to the end of the hall and into the stairwell. In last night's dress. Zitao stares after her still, mind racing, and he's so startled he almost loses his balance when Lu Han bursts through his door, holding something in his hand.

"Yiqing, you forgot—" he shouts, silencing the moment he sees Zitao standing there. His face flushes, and he scowls, retreating back into his room, but not before Zitao realizes that it's her panties. Yiqing forgot her panties. All Zitao wanted to do was go to the gym early on a Sunday morning, when nobody else would be hogging the squat bar. Now, he's lamenting that having a B+ in ethics doesn't help him at all in figuring out whether, as a bro, it's his responsibility to text Kris about this or not.

 

Kris has been dating Yiqing since freshman year, sort of. It wasn't really official until their sophomore year, but it isn't like either of them had fucked anyone but each other during that first term. Still, that's almost two and a half years that they were practically monogamous. Or at least, Zitao assumes they were monogamous. Zitao is questioning their entire relationship now because he honestly didn't think Yiqing would have it in her to go behind Kris' back like that; she never seemed the type.

He breathes out with his whole abdomen as he squats down for the last rep in this set, and then he replaces the bar, leaning on it distractedly. His chest is thumping and his lungs are heaving and he's still not distracted enough from what he saw this morning. He'd been expecting something dramatic, like Lu Han texting him with threats of death if he told, but there's been nothing. Maybe he went back to sleep.

"Hey." Someone puts their hand on his back, startling him, and he cries out at an embarrassing pitch. Whirling on whoever it is with fury in his sneer has little effect because it's Yiqing, laughing behind her small hands. "Sorry," she says without meaning it. "I was just wondering if you were done with that." She points to the bar behind him, and Zitao shrugs, glaring down at her.

"I've got three more sets."

"Maybe we can alternate, then."

She shuffles Zitao out of the way and starts pulling off his weights, and he can only watch her resignedly. She never seemed like the backstabbing, fuck-your-boyfriend's-teammate type, but she _has_ always been very good at getting her way. Her squat form is perfect and Zitao pointedly does not stare at her butt while she works (given the circumstances), choosing instead to look out the window. The sun is just starting to come up, casting a pinkish red glow across the newly fallen snow.

"So, your sleepover with Lu Han…," he says after a moment, letting Yiqing finish and slide past him before adding his weights back to the bar.

A long silence passes before Yiqing says, "What about it?"

Zitao throws her a cool look, hating how innocent she sounds. "Does Kris know?"

Yiqing shrugs, taking a swig from her water bottle. "Not really."

Scoffing, Zitao begins his set, going harder now that he's angry all over again. Yiqing stares at him unabashedly, he can see her watching in the mirror, and he does his best not to lose his cool. "You need to talk to him," Zitao says when he replaces the bar. Yiqing reaches out to pull him out of her way, but he slaps her hand aside. "Today."

Yiqing smiles, succeeding in moving Zitao this time, and as they spin around each other, she says, "I figured you would talk to him for me."

There it is, Yiqing totaling his leverage. Zitao has two more sets of squats and an entire core workout to finish, but he doesn't. He swipes up his log and his water bottle and leaves. Now he _knows_ he should tell Kris, _knows_ that it's the right thing to do because who's going to do it but him? But no. He won't. He refuses to give Yiqing the satisfaction. She's playing with him just like she's playing with Kris and Lu Han, and he won't let her win. Besides, there's probably more to it than he understands.

Fuck, it's Yiqing. Of course there is.

 

Zitao thinks that Lu Han might act different in practice. He might try to avoid Kris. He might try to avoid Zitao, too. But he doesn't. He acts like he always does, if just a touch meaner in his jeers and rougher in his passes. It's better than not being passed to at all, Zitao supposes, and he tries not to get too distracted observing him. Kris isn't suspicious.

If he were, he probably wouldn't be inviting Lu Han to come with him, Zitao, and the girls down to the pool before it closes when practice has ended. Lu Han finally looks at Zitao like he remembers exactly what Zitao saw, and he almost declines, but Yiqing is there with Minseon and Jungda, and she always gets her way. Zitao openly glares at her as she approaches, smiling. "Aiya, Lu-ge, you're not coming?" she says, which means of course he's coming. Lu Han smiles weakly at her, shrugging, and Kris hugs her close.

"For Yiqing?" he says imploringly, like an ass, and Zitao rolls his eyes, tempting fate. Lu Han reaches out to punch Zitao's shoulder much harder than is necessary, and Kris stares between them in confusion.

"Fine," Lu Han says, shoving his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. "I don't know why, though. It's freezing."

"We're going to sit in the hot tub."

"You're still gonna have wet hair when you walk back to the dorms." But Lu Han is following them off the court anyways.

 

Lu Han probably shouldn't have come. Sure, Zitao has had days where he can't stop staring when Yiqing wears something revealing; her bikinis are notorious. It's gotten him in trouble with Jungda more times than he can count, but even he's human. Lu Han, though. Lu Han looks like he can't breathe until he's staring at her chest. Like if he goes too long without ogling her, he'll asphyxiate. Kris, god bless him, doesn't even notice. He's arguing with Minseon about a chemistry exam they just took, and Yiqing is dividing her time between kindly supporting both sides of the argument and flaunting herself in front of Lu Han. Zitao distantly wonders if what they did is more than just a one-time thing.

Yiqing shakes Kris' shoulder to tear him from his debate, saying, "Let's go jump in the pool."

He looks at her like she's crazy. "No way, it's gonna be freezing," he says, already turning back to Minseon. Yiqing frowns, draping herself across Kris' lap.

"Please?" she begs in a way that would make Zitao cede to any request if he didn't know any better. To his credit, Kris just picks her up and puts her back in her seat. Her generally distant eyes are acutely calculating in that moment, and Zitao isn't the only one who sees it. Jungda is immediately backing away, shaking her head and laughing a musical laugh.

"You're not getting me out of here," she says, sinking into the hot water.

Yiqing doesn't even ask Zitao; she's smarter than she acts, he'll give her that. "Lu-ge," she says, her smile predatory when she slides over to him. Jungda meets Zitao's gaze from across the length of the pool, sitting upright on her bench. Zitao just presses his lips together and shakes his head. "You'll jump with me, right?"

Lu Han looks uncomfortable when he realizes that both Zitao and Jungda are playing audience to this appeal, but at least Kris isn't looking. "Sure," he says a beat too late, looking very hard into Yiqing's eyes and nowhere else. She smiles and rises from the water like a serpent, rivulets running down her curves in tempting streams. Lu Han follows, less graceful or sure of himself. Jungda shares one look with Zitao once their backs are turned as they ascend the steps of the hot tub, and then the two reluctantly rise to follow. Yiqing crows with happiness when she sees them. Kris waves them all off as crazy.

Yiqing and Lu Han jump first. They hold hands as they go. Yiqing resurfaces with an enthusiastic squeal, and Lu Han comes up sputtering. Jungda jumps next, her slim frame sparing the rest of them from much of a splash. Zitao goes last, and it's shocking how unbelievably cold the heated pool feels after they've been in the hot tub for so long. He gasps when he comes up, shivering with his entire body, and Yiqing is laughing at him behind her hands. Jungda is laughing too, though, so it doesn't feel as patronizing.

"So why are you three being so weird?" Jungda asks point blank, her voice low so that it won't travel far from where they're treading water.

Zitao looks at Yiqing who looks back at him with a coy smile, and he thinks, _fuck it_. "Yiqing slept with Lu Han last Saturday, and I caught her leaving his room."

Lu Han blanches but doesn't lash out. Jungda's sly smile falls, and she looks at Yiqing. "Oh, wow. How did _that_ go over?"

"It was good," Yiqing shrugs with a smile, "but Lu Han doesn't even go down."

Before Jungda can clarify that she wasn't exactly asking about the sex, Lu Han jumps in, irritably, "What do you mean I don't go down?"

"Well, you didn't the other night."

"Yeah, didn't. _Once_."

"Well, we've only slept together once."

"That doesn't mean I don't go down. Would you stop spreading rumors about me?"

Jungda looks painfully uncomfortable and readily interrupts them, saying, "I meant with Kris. And I guess you guys, too. How did that even happen?"

"How did what even happen?" Kris crouches at the lip of the pool, dipping one long finger in to test the temperature. Minseon stands behind him, looking at them all skeptically, but Zitao can't tell if it's because of the pool stunt or their conversation. Yiqing spares the rest of them from an awkward silence by gliding over to her boyfriend, reaching up with the intent of pulling him in. The lifeguard on duty shouts at her that roughhousing is not allowed in the pool. Kris backs away from the edge and Yiqing shrugs, pulling herself out to hit the showers.

 

Lu Han and Yiqing always got along well. Zitao remembers that when he's supposed to be copying down ethics notes from the blackboard, staring into the chalky, delicate swirl of his professor's handwriting. It was early, some of the first weeks of their very first semester, where Minseon had recommended language tutoring for Yiqing. Lu Han had just taken a job on campus working with other Chinese foreign exchange students, and Zitao remembers the first time he saw them together.

Somehow, it's more memorable than the first time Yiqing met Kris, because there's just something about Lu Han and Yiqing that sets them apart from everyone else, even now. It's this other world that they live in, where nobody else exists. Yiqing resides there almost permanently, and for some reason, Lu Han is the only one who can transcend the distance between reality and that far-off place in her eyes, passing through the aloofness that even Kris gets caught up in.

It's also common knowledge that Lu Han has been head over heels in love with Yiqing since before she even met Kris. Zitao isn't exactly sure how she ended up with Kris in the first place when everything around her had been so completely _Lu Han_ that first month on campus, a country away from home. But of course Lu Han would want to introduce her to the rest of the basketball team; and of course that would include the captain. The look Kris had given her the first time they met was raw, animalistic. It wasn't until weeks later when he actually started to look at her the same way Lu Han did.

Zitao wonders if this is just karma. Divine intervention. Something justifiable, meaningful, righting the wrong of Yiqing being swept out of Lu Han's arms and into Kris' bed. Not that Kris and Yiqing don't have a good relationship _now_. Or at least, he thought they did, until Yiqing went and cheated on him. Zitao groans and drops his head onto his notebook, tilting to the side to peek up at the clock. There are still another twenty-five minutes until class is over. He puts his head back down and hopes that sitting in the middle row is far enough away from the board to get away with a nap.

 

Saturday night is a party at Minseon's apartment. More than just the six of them, Jungda's friends from choir come. Kris brings Chanyeol and Junmyeon, and Yiqing and Minseon together invite two of the boys from the cheer squad, one of whom Zitao is rather fond of. He sticks to the kid most of the night, shouting, "Sehunnie!" into his ear whenever something particularly exciting happens, like Sehun winning a round beer pong against Kyungsoo and Baekhyun for them, or Kris getting both naked and shit-faced during flip, sip or strip. Yiqing's hands are all over him, distracting him from his embarrassment. Zitao uses Sehun to shield himself from the sight.

The drinking game is always the peak of the party; things are supposed to settle from there. Some people are still drinking after that, but lightly. Kris has redressed for the most part and looks passed out on the couch. Baekhyun, Jungda and Minseon are battling high notes on the porch, and both Baekhyun and Jungda look gravely offended that Minseon can sing higher than both of them. Kyungsoo and one of the cheerleaders, Jongin, disappeared ages ago and Zitao doubts they're coming back, and Yiqing is sitting on the kitchen counter with Lu Han between her legs, playing with his hands. Zitao frowns and watches them, trying to get Sehun to migrate that way so that he has an excuse to eavesdrop, but Sehun is more content to sprawl himself on the living room floor and let the world swim around him.

Zitao scowls, prodding at him, but Lu Han and Yiqing are already up, slipping into the hallway towards Minseon's bedroom anyways. Zitao stares after them, astounded by the boldness, and he glances at Kris. He's still comatose on the sofa. Chanyeol watches Zitao from where he's sprawled in an armchair, saluting him when he stands and starts to follow the couple.

There's no moaning, at least. Zitao stands beside the bathroom, ready to duck in should either of them come out while he's listening. He can barely hear a word they're saying, but he can hear their tones. Lu Han sounds frustrated. Zitao snorts, unsurprised; it's part of Yiqing's charm. He's close to inching forward, putting his ear to the cheap, thin material of the door so that he can hear better, when someone touches his shoulder and he jumps so dramatically that he slams his elbow into the wall.

It's just Sehun, who looks at Zitao like he's grown a second head. All sounds of conversation behind the bedroom door silence, and Zitao can hear a shuffling of movement. He grabs Sehun by the neck and drags him into the bathroom, just managing to shut the door when Lu Han and Yiqing emerge. They huddle together there in the darkness, neither of them bothering with the light switch, instead waiting intertwined and with bated breath.

Someone bangs on the door and both boys jump right into each other in fright, knocking heads and elbows and all sorts of other hard, bony prominences. Yiqing laughs on the other side of the door, shouting, "Use a condom!" before running off down the hall. Zitao groans and rubs his forehead while Sehun holds his cheek where Zitao might have accidentally head-butted him.

"Why were you following them in the first place?" he hisses, sounding tender.

"She's my best friend's girlfriend, okay?" Zitao snaps. Sehun sighs and leans back against the door.

"Then why was she in the bedroom with Lu Han?"

"I don't know. That's why I was following them."

Sehun makes a noise of distant understanding, a noncommittal hum, and still neither of them reach for the light switch. Zitao steps backwards carefully until he finds the ledge of the tub, and he sits down on it. Sehun hesitates before moving forward, onto the lid of the toilet. "I'm drunk," he prefaces, and Zitao is about to ask what that means when Sehun leans forward and kisses him. Well, mostly. His aim is off, but his intentions are clear. Zitao turns his head to catch it this time, knowing that Jungda will probably be upset about this later. At least they're not official, and what he's doing isn't cheating.

 

Zitao saves Sehun's number in his phone and tells Jungda about him on Monday when they eat lunch together. She stares at him for a moment before shrugging and saying, "Invite me next time." That's how it's supposed to go, he thinks. With honesty and candor. And maybe Zitao has the advantage here, because there wasn't a doubt in his mind that he will never lose Jungda over someone else. He has no idea how Kris will react when he finds out about Lu Han, but be that as it may, Zitao doesn't believe that revokes his right to know. Yiqing made her decision. It's frustrating, her refusal to deal with the consequences.

"I heard Lu Han and Yiqing did it again at Kris' party."

"When?"

Jungda shrugs. "Don't you know about it? I heard that you followed them."

Zitao rolls his eyes. "Oh. No, they didn't do anything. I think they were just talking."

"Okay, well Chanyeol's spreading rumors. I don't think he said anything to Kris, though."

"I wish he would." Jungda takes a bite of sushi, watching Zitao pointedly, and he shrugs. "I'm not telling. Yiqing is waiting on me to tell."

"Really? I thought your friendship would be more important than your pride."

Zitao's mouth drops open in surprise, and he scoots away from the table angrily. "Jiejie, no, that's not fair," he whines, frowning at her. She doesn't falter, one eyebrow slanted skeptically, and Zitao feels himself crumbling beneath the gravity of her gaze. "It's not _my_ job to tell on her whenever she does something wrong."

Jungda sighs, leaning forward. "Well Yiqing isn't going to tell." Zitao braces himself, knowing that Jungda is not going to go easy just because she likes him. "So who's job is it?" He sighs, closing his eyes and resting his head in his hands.

 

Jungda practically drags him out of his algebra class, making a spectacle right in front of the TA. He apologizes hastily just before he's hauled across the threshold and out into the hall, and he tears his arm out of Jungda's grip before she can drag him any further. "I have a test next week," he snaps, glaring down at her. She doesn't seem phased. In fact, she doesn't seem like she's heard what he just said. She looks like she has something urgent to say.

"Kris is sleeping with Minseon."

Zitao freezes, certain that he's misheard something. But Jungda levels him with a stare, and Zitao realizes that she means exactly what she's said. It's almost unbelievable. Zitao could suspend his disbelief with Yiqing; she's always doing strange things and unexpected things and sometimes bad things. But Kris? Kris would never cheat on Yiqing. It's why Zitao never wanted to bring this up with Kris. He takes fidelity very seriously.

"There's no way," Zitao says after a moment.

"Minseon told me. She won't tell me anything else, though."

"Why would she _tell_ you that she's sleeping with Kris?"

Jungda's mouth twists to the side. "Okay, I mean, she didn't tell me. But I was on her phone, and…"

"Oh."

"I asked her about it, but she told me that everything is fine and to mind my own business."

Zitao rolls his eyes. "Of course she did." He takes a seat against the wall, sliding down until he's reached the floor. It's a long way down, but by the time he gets there, he still doesn't know what to do with this. Kris is sleeping with Minseon. "There's got to be something more to it," he says, looking up at Jungda. "If they're both fooling around. There's got to be something we don't know. Right?"

Jungda sighs and settles down beside him. "Unless they broke up and just haven't told everybody."

Zitao's face crumples a little bit when she says this. He hates the idea. Even after everything, whatever Yiqing is doing to Kris and whatever Kris is doing in return, the idea of them breaking up leaves an ugly taste in his mouth. He's the youngest of their friend group, the last one to come in, the baby. Almost all he's known is Yiqing and Kris. There was never anything before the two of them started fucking, even when Yiqing spent all of her time with Lu Han. She was just a precursor to the Yiqing she would be when she had Kris at her side. They were the rock, the pivotal point, the rest of their friends only moving in their orbit. He can't imagine what it's going to do to the rest of their friend group if they break up, to the cheerleading squad, to the basketball team.

"Jiejie, no," he mumbles after a quiet moment, dropping his head onto Jungda's shoulder. "I don't want them to break up." She reaches up to stroke his hair but doesn't say anything. He breathes her in desperately, the soft scent of her shampoo a quiet comfort.

"So whose job is it to talk to them, now?"

Zitao groans and drops his head into his hands. "Fine," he says in defeat. Jungda rubs his arm soothingly.

"I'll go with you," she offers. "Tonight's practice?"

Leaning back against the wall, Zitao shrugs. "Okay."

 

Jungda shows up to their practice still in her yoga pants and one of his t-shirts, dark with sweat from cheer practice. She comes with Yiqing in tow, but Yiqing doesn't wait beside her. Yiqing finds Kris and pushes her way into his arms, delaying the progress of basketball practice, and Zitao takes the opportunity before he loses his nerve.

"Are you guys broken up?" he asks them, quiet and tentative enough that it can't be heard outside of them, muffled by the distracted dribbling of basketballs and rowdy hum of chatter amongst the rest of the team.

Kris, to his credit, looks seriously distressed by Zitao's question. "What? No, why?" He doesn't look guilty at all. Zitao wonders if he actually did sleep with Minseon. He never saw the text Jungda was talking about, but he does trust his jiejie.

"Yeah, Zitao, why?" Yiqing, on the other hand, looks like the cat who caught the mouse. Zitao glares at her, his temper short.

"Because Yiqing fucked Lu Han two weeks ago," he turns to Kris, "and you're fucking Minseon—"

" _Lu Han_?" Kris asks, incredulous, looking down at Yiqing with the meanest scowl on his face that Zitao has ever seen. Yiqing is unfazed. "You have your choice of anybody on campus, and you picked _Lu Han_? What happened to Chanyeol, or Junmyeon?"

"What's wrong with Lu Han?" Yiqing shoots back, her eyes narrowed. Their voices have risen, and when Zitao looks over, Lu Han is watching him, furious. Beneath the anger, there's an obvious trembling of fear.

"Nothing, except that he's probably the most _annoying_ —I mean, really, Yiqing, _Lu Han_? How did you even get him to shut up long enough to fuck him?"

Lu Han's mouth drops open, but he can take all the offense he wants. He still looks about as confused as Zitao feels. Kris is making childish accusations over Lu Han's character like Yiqing didn't just admit to cheating on him. For that matter, Yiqing didn't even blink when Zitao told her about Minseon.

"I want to bring him over," Yiqing says resolutely, folding her arms and cocking her hip resolutely. Kris looks at her wildly.

" _Seriously_?"

"What's wrong with him? You like him."

"I mean, yeah, he's an okay guy, but—"

"What is this?" Jungda cuts in, finally taking up a place beside Zitao. He's thankful for her presence, because he isn't certain he would have had the gusto to interrupt the couple now that they're starting to really go at it.

Kris and Yiqing turn to her, surprise on both of their faces. Yiqing blushes and Kris looks away, folding his arms. Zitao takes Jungda's hand and pulls on it, and though she gives him a confused look, she follows him away. Minseon takes up after them, and the rest of the team starts to disperse as well. The only people who are left unmoving are Yiqing, Kris, and Lu Han. Zitao glances back at them nervously, but Kris doesn't look angry anymore. He looks resigned, and maybe a little bit anxious. Yiqing is rubbing his shoulder, and Lu Han is staring at the ground.

Minseon drags Zitao away from the door, letting the three to have their moment.

 

Yiqing, Kris, and Lu Han have claimed a couch by the time Zitao finishes paying for his lunch. Minseon and Jungda are still in line to get their food, so it's just him there to catch the three intertwined so casually and intimately that it's almost startling. Just last week, Lu Han had looked close to unconsciousness whenever Kris was near. Now, they split Yiqing between them, her legs sprawled across Lu Han's lap as she leans into Kris' side. Kris has his arm wrapped around her shoulders, but it doesn't stop there; he spans the whole length of the loveseat to Lu Han's shoulder, absentmindedly playing with the fabric of his sleeve. Lu Han, whether he knows it or not, is leaning further and further into the touch.

Zitao doesn't know exactly what happened after their last practice, but whatever it was, it seems to have worked. When Kris mentioned inviting Lu Han along to lunch with the rest of them, it sounded less like how it used to and much more complicated in a way that Zitao can only understand viscerally. That's fine. If fucking fixes their friend group, Zitao won't be the one to make waves over it.

Yiqing sees him first. She sits up a little bit, both Kris and Lu Han reaching out to pull her back down before spotting Zitao as well. They wave him over, and he takes an armchair adjacent to their seat. Yiqing and Kris smile at him, and Lu Han tries to but it ends up more as a grimace. He still hasn't completely forgiven Zitao for telling, even though things seem to have worked out.

Zitao isn't worried, not when Yiqing lays a hand over Lu Han's knee and the sour look fades into a smile so open and adoring that Zitao is warmed just from seeing it. Lu Han raises his eyes to look at Kris, and the expression dims timidly but doesn't disappear. Zitao tilts his head, wondering if it is just fucking between them. Kris smirks his usual imperious smirk, looking very satisfied to have both Lu Han and Yiqing beside him, and before Zitao can analyze any further, Jungda takes a seat directly in his lap.

He huffs, surprised, and then whines when Minseon takes a seat in Jungda's lap. He tries to stand, but together, they hold him down. "I can't eat like this, jiejie," he complains, hooking his chin over Jungda's shoulder. She turns her head and smiles at him, easing Minseon off and into another armchair before wedging herself between Zitao and the arm of his chair. She's slim, so she fits, but only if Zitao is squeezed uncomfortably into the other two thirds of the seat. He heaves a put-upon sigh and stands to find another seat, but Jungda grabs onto his and holds him in place.

"Di, don't go, you can eat like this," she tells him. She drapes her legs over him like how Yiqing has with Lu Han, and some of the pressure is allayed. When he looks back up, Yiqing is holding out a piece of sushi to Lu Han, who is trying to figure out how to fit the entire piece into his mouth at once, while Kris is urging him to just eat it before it falls. In their frenzy, they manage to smear part of it across Lu Han's cheek before getting the rest into his mouth. He wipes at the rice and sauce with his wrist, looking disgusted until Yiqing pulls his hand up to her mouth and licks him clean. Kris' grip on Lu Han's shirt has tightened to a fist.

"Jiejie," Zitao whispers, staring brazenly. "Should we go?"

Yiqing hears him even though there is a steady hum of conversation around them that should be loud enough to drown him out. She turns to smile at him, that same smile she gave him a couple weeks ago when he caught her sneaking out of Lu Han's room. Playful, secretive, but most of all, calm. Collected. Zitao feels an instinctive desire to trust her, especially now. He concedes with an impish roll of his eyes. She giggles and turns her head to press a kiss to Kris' cheek.

"Didi," Jungda says, holding her phone up to Zitao. "I'm texting Sehun about lunch. What should I tell him?"

Zitao looks up to Lu Han, Kris, and Yiqing, mouth already open to ask their approval to invite Sehun along, when he sees Kris' mouth dragging along the side of Yiqing's neck. Lu Han's hand is on her thigh, grip tight as he watches. Zitao makes a face, resisting the urge to throw something at them because they're in _public_. He pushes Jungda until she gets the hint, standing up and pulling her lunch together. Minseon is already gone without a trace.

"Tell Sehun we'll meet him wherever he is."

As they leave, Yiqing smiles that smile again. Zitao decides that he doesn't want to trust her after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Believe it or not, this was actually supposed to be a femme!Xing bicycle fic...but then Zitao ended up telling the whole story so that kind of made it impossible. But I've got two or three of the smut scenes that weren't included already partly written, so I might just make a "sequel" where I can put those? Like is that a thing that people would enjoy? Because I'm so down.


End file.
